The value of your company is partly determined by the industry you are in. For example, cloud-based software companies are generally worth a lot more than
traditional manufacturing companies these days.

However, when we analyse businesses in the same industry such as the Security Industry, we still see major variations in company values. So, we data mined
the information available to us from our partners at The Value Builder System™ and were able to identify 10 things that will make your Security
company more valuable than your competitors.

1. Recurring Revenue

The more revenue you have from automatically recurring contracts, licenses, apps or subscriptions, the more valuable your business will be to a buyer.
If you can find some form of recurring revenue it will make your company much more valuable than those of your competitors. For an installer that will
be service and maintenance contracts and for a manufacturer it could be software licenses.

2. Something Different

Buyers buy what they cannot easily replicate on their own, which means companies with a unique product or service that is difficult for a competitor to
copy are more valuable than a company that sells the same commodity as everyone else in the security industry. Differentiators can be product and feature
related or service delivery based or a combination of both.

3. Growth

Acquirers looking to fuel their top line revenue growth through acquisition will pay a premium for your business if it is growing much faster than your
competitors in the security sector, whether that be installation and maintenance or manufacturing of CCTV, Access control or other products for the
security industry.

4. Brand visibility

Have you ever wondered why successful brands like Apple, Samsung and BMW all continue to advertise and promote themselves? The answer is simple. They are
increasing the value of their brands and their brand equity.If your brand is highly visible and has a good reputation (High Brand Value) then expect
to get a premium acquisition offer when you choose to sell and more repeat sales as your brand is front of mind in purchaser’s decisions.

5. Location and Channels

Location is very important in improving the value of your business. For security installers you need to have engineers available to service your customer
base and for manufacturers, location is normally about the sales and distribution channels you use to ensure customers have easy access to your products.

For a potential acquirer having established channels will save them the time and cost of developing a network of resellers and distributors which makes
it easy for them to enter the market.

6. Diversity

You will no doubt have heard about Pareto’s law which is often called the 80/20 rule. Acquirers pay a premium for companies that avoid having 80% of their
business with just a few customers as the loss of a single customer can cause major problems. Ensure no customer amounts to more than 20% of your revenue
and your company will be more valuable than an industry peer with just a few big customers.

7. Predictability

If you’ve mastered a way to win customers and documented your sales funnel with a predictable set of conversion rates, your secret customer-acquiring formula
will make your business more valuable to an acquirer than an industry peer who doesn’t have a clue where their next customer will come from.

8. Clean Books

Companies that invest in audited statements have financials that are generally viewed by acquirers as more trustworthy and therefore worth more. You may
want to get your books reviewed professionally each year by a reputable accountancy firm.

9. Loyal staff and management

Companies with a strong management structure and competent staff are more valuable than businesses where all the power and knowledge are in the hands of
the owner. Consider creating some standard operating systems and processes to help automate the way you do business.

10. Happy Customers

Being able to objectively demonstrate that your customers are happy and intend to re-purchase in the future will make your business more valuable than
an industry peer that does not have a means of tracking customer satisfaction.

Like a rising tide which lifts all the boats in the harbor, the security industry typically defines a range of multiples within which your business is
likely to sell for; but whether you fall at the bottom or the top of the range comes down to factors that have nothing to do with what you do, but instead, how you do it.

Do you have a job or do you own a business? The ultimate test of this can be found in a simple question: would someone want to buy your company or is it
dependent on you?

Whether you want to sell next year or a decade from now, you must be building an asset someone would buy – otherwise, you have a job, not a business.

Here are eight ways to ensure you are building a company, not just doing a job:

A job requires that you show up at work to make money, whereas a company generates revenue whether you are there or not.

If your company is so reliant on a single customer that they can dictate how you deliver your product or service, your company is more like a job than
a valuable business.

A job is a place where your personal reputation and customer relationships impacts your results, whereas a company is a place where the brand is more
important than the personality of the founder(s).

A job requires you to use your personal experience and expertise to get a result, whereas a company is a place where a process – not a person – consistently
produces a desirable result.

In a job, you’re limited to how much holiday you can take and often worry about what’s happening when you are away, whereas if you own a company, the
more holiday you can take without impacting your company’s performance, the more valuable your business will be.

In a job, the harder you work, the more money you earn. In a company, the smarter you work, the more money you earn.

In a job, you solve the problems. If you own a company, your employees solve the problems.

If the majority of your customers know your mobile phone number, it’s likely you have a job, not a company.

If you’re still not sure whether you have a job or own a business, it’s time to get your Value Builder Score and learn how to reduce the dependency of
your business on you.

The Value Builder Score assessment allows you to see your business as a buyer would see it, and helps you identify how you perform on each of the eight
key drivers of company value.

You complete a questionnaire and after you’re finished you’ll get a customised 27-page report outlining how you performed and where you could improve the
value of your company. Get your score now.

Asking how to do this is a bit like asking ‘what is the meaning of life?’. Simple stuff at its core – but it can get complicated along the way…
The central principles are:

Define your key added-value deliverablesBe very clear about what it is you are really selling. I don’t mean just the products or services (as important as they are) – but what they can potentially
do for your customer. Think carefully about your deliverables and where they are advantageous versus the competition – i.e. where do you have competitive
advantage? (bearing in mind that this could be different depending on who the competitor is).

Identify where you are most likely to succeed with new business opportunitiesMake a list of the factors which determine where you
should seek out your new business and apply some form of ‘weighting’ to allow you to prioritise. At the top of your list should be a question which
allows you to define those most likely to be receptive to your ‘story’.

Understand your prospect’s world so you can identify with themDo your homework on the organisations you plan to approach. What is
going on in their world? What’s topical and ‘hot’? What is likely to be on their business agenda?

Consider where your strongest propositions lieDo some preliminary thinking about the proposition/s you have in your portfolio (see
first principle above) which potentially connects with your understanding of what’s likely to be on their agenda.

Where do you first make contact?Also as part of your homework, consider who the most appropriate first stage contact is.
Remember that:

This very often isn’t who the organisation points at the outside world and uses as its ‘filter’

Further downstream in your dialogue it will be much easier to be delegated downwards than vice versa.

What message is threaded through your initial communication? Decide how you will approach the organisation with the ‘lead’ proposition threaded into your communication:

Linkedin communication

Phone in direct

Call PA first

Work with partner

E-mail/letter in first instance ready for telephone follow-up

Seek out introduction from a networked contact
- In relation to the last point above, it has been our consistent experience that people in selling in the UK give nowhere near enough thought to
how they can get an introduction
- Do you know someone who works there or has worked there?
- Do you know someone in a complementary business?
- Can you find out something about their business/market which allows you to make a connection?

What impact do conversion ratios have on the way you plan sales activity?Do some conversion rate-based arithmetic which ensures that you plan enough activity to achieve your target.

Matching their needs to your deliverables…When you are with your prospect, put the emphasis on making the connection between your knowledge of what’s happening in their world, his/her needs
(as identified by your questions), and your potential deliverables.

In a recent issue of Director magazine, Philip Sadler attributes the UK’s positive economic outlook for the 21st century to the fact that ‘some learning
has been going on’.

He is of course, correct to say this, but I fear that UK industry still has much to learn about the noble art (or is it science?) of selling.

Whilst the salaries offered for senior sales and sales management professionals in places such as the Appointments section of the Sunday Times prove that
there are exceptions to the rule, I believe that in the UK today, the profession is still widely misunderstood, undervalued and shrouded in hype.

The snapshot which follows is an attempt to separate the reality from the mythology and nonsense.
Consistent success in selling can be distilled down to the planning and on going management of the three elements of sales activity which produce results:

1. Direction

In relation to the company’s marketing policies (and how well have these been articulated throughout the organisation?):

Which products / services are the best bets for the future, and thus require the most sales emphasis?

Which customers / potential customers will yield the best results for the future, and which ‘selection criteria’ have been assembled to ensure that
the most applicable organisations are targeted for sales attention?

At what level(s) within the customer’s hierarchy do you need to be selling to be most likely to secure directly a buying decision?

Use your regularly updated knowledge of both to plan the action needed.

3. Quality

Know your products in hard-edged ‘customer deliverable’ terms.

Which opportunities do they help your customers to exploit?

Which threats do they help your customers to offset?

Be aware of how this varies by customer type.

Know how your deliverables stack up against those of your key competitors. Plan and execute your questions and overall sales approach around this analysis,
and use it as the springboard for selling the real value of what you do for customers, and where applicable, as the justification for resisting
price pressure.

It is simple, really, then. Forget the hype and concentrate on carefully planning and managing the three elements of sales activity which will produce
your successful sales results of the future.